EXHIBITION: STATE. RESPOND

What does sustainability mean to you? Nurturing the environment? Recycling? Preventing global warming? According to Brian Parkes, Associate Director and Senior Curator of Object Gallery & Collect, it means much, much more.

“It’s about financial sustainability, things that have long-term futures,” said Parkes. “It’s about community sustainability, things that kind of make for better communities, more cohesive communities; it’s about cultural sustainability, things that are important to valuing and sustaining in all of our cultures, different and traditional cultures.

Or it might be, environmental or ecological sustainability, which is about the planet.”

With this in mind, Object asked five creative directors of design studios to respond to a statement about the role of sustainability in contemporary design practice. The result will be a two month exhibition showcasing the responses from these designers about the power of design to create positive change in the world. Mr Parkes described this as an exciting venture for the Gallery as it was the first time their focus had shifted from objects to ideas with the aim of encouraging people to respond to provocative statements.

“The exhibition is just a starting point. Hopefully conversations will emerge from it, new relationships will emerge from it … With a bit of luck there will be blogosphere action.”

An interactive micro-website and a series of short films made by The Centre for Learning Innovation will continue the conversation after the exhibition finishes. They will be used as a resource for teachers throughout NSW for a number of years.  Mr Parkes said the designers were chosen for two reasons, one of them being that the people they selected, “Had to have a real, demonstrable track record” in working with the philosophies and principles of ethical and sustainable design.

“So we can illustrate to people that it is possible to succeed doing this, it’s not just a theory, like it’s real and here’s people who are doing it – really well,” he said. “The other, was to try and select five different – and we picked five as a number that was suitable for our space – to illustrate a diverse a range of design practices and to think of them as compass points.”

Participating in the exhibition is multi-media company, Digital Eskimo.  Principal and Creative Director, David Gravina started the business in 2000 after returning from overseas, where he encountered a number of social justice and environmental issues. Gravina said the word ‘sustainability’ wasn’t the best term to describe the Digital Eskimo ethos, believing it had become a buzz word – one that wasn’t necessarily inspiring.

“It [sustainability] means being able to do what we do indefinitely on one level. I much prefer the concept of a nurturing society and economy – one that is not just sustainable but thriving and supportive of people and the natural environment as they both evolve.”

Digital Eskimo invest in projects that not only reduce their negative impacts but also have the potential to be adopted. This includes initiatives like their company bike fleet, car share scheme and worm farms. They avoid working on anything that runs against their values. Gravina said he became involved in the STATE. RESPOND exhibition because it was a great opportunity to engage designers and people in the creative sector to realise the power of design can have for solving the world’s challenging problems.

“We can become agents of change through our work and this is the message we are taking to Object,” said Gravina. “Without giving it all away, I’ll say we are asking for people to participate in a project we’re launching soon by contributing ideas and also to partake in a most interesting research exercise within the actual exhibition.”

Schamburg + Alvisse was born in 1997 through the partnership of interior designer, Marc Schamburg and architect, Michael Alvisse. Their path to making eco-friendly furniture came several years later when they discovered the resins planned for an international project were not environmentally safe.

“Schamburg + Alvisse is foremost a product design company – and best design practices are our priority,” said Schamburg “To us, best product includes eco-content where possible, recycled waste material where possible and low toxicity. The eco-furniture focus has been a moral stance taken at a point in our production, maintained and strengthened with time.”

Schamburg believed sustainability in design was about using resources that meet manufacturing needs while preserving the environment, now and in the future. But he added that being sustainable also included making products more unique and less fashion-centric to increase durability so they will be resold or reused. The designer’s installation in the exhibition will unravel the process of manufacture and consumption. This involves five 050 chairs – an item they’ve produced for sometime – sitting in arc around a pile of e-waste, which includes secondary computers, entertainment electronics, phones and other items such as television sets and refrigerators. The chairs will be upholstered in fabric off-cuts left over from other projects and embroidered with the designer’s response to Object’s initial statement about the role sustainability in design practice.

“My hope is that the audience will feel some emotion seeing something as familiar as their computer or telephone in a pile in front of them,” said Schamburg. “Often we don’t realise what is within a product – we just look at the wrapper or the outer shape. Inside the Schamburg & Alvisse wrapper is garbage remade ‘valuable’.”

Also featured in the show is Chris Bosse, Partner in the architectural firm, LAVA, who will showcase their carbon neutral project in Abu Dhabi; Marcus Piper and Christey Johansson, Creative Directors of one8one7, a graphic design agency aiming to create a timeless aesthetic and keep their footprint small by working on the South Coast of NSW. And finally, Rachel Bending from Bird Textiles will illustrate through videos of her home and studio along with websites, blogs and images from companies around the world how it is possible to address sustainability in both work and play.

Feb 6 Feb-Mar 28, Object Gallery & Collect, 417 Bourke St, Surry Hills, 9361 4511 or object.com.au